The recently-revealed God of War: Ascension proves that prequels will continue to be an attractive way for developers to extend the life of a series without having to worry about the consequences and story concerns that come with making a sequel. Still, this announcement made us wonder which release is the greatest prequel in gaming history.

26 years have passed since Kid Icarus was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Aside from a forgotten handheld sequel for the Game Boy in 1991, the series has remained dormant for several generations. Resurrecting an ancient game franchise is no small task, especially when the developer has over two decades of rose-tinted memories to take into account.

The National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAVGTR, pronounced “navigator”) announced its list of nominees for their 2012 NAVGTR video game awards. Voice actors Tom Sizemore and Tara Platt were on hand to present the nominations.
The organization plans to have a panel of game journalists and other industry folks debate the list and predict the winners during the PAX East festival this April. It will announce the winners shortly afterwards.
And the nominees are…

Nintendo has finally released the solution to the game-breaking bug in Skyward Sword in the form of a separate downloadable channel. The Zelda Data Restoration Channel is currently only available in Japan. The channel will be available for download from the Wii Shopping Channel when and if it releases globally.

Nintendo’s newest flagship video games, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D Land, have both sold over 500,000 units in the U.S. alone, according to an interview with a Nintendo executive.